I am employed at a correctional facility, and two to three times a week an attorney will come in to visit with their clients. When I process these attorneys 99% of the times I asked them what law school they attended. The attorneys that are 35 and older, proudly proclaim that they graduated from the University of Detroit. The last four or five millennial aged attorneys stated that they graduated from Mercy, almost as if they were ashamed to say the word Detroit. I find this confusing because I thought most millenials don’t seem to have the same fear/hate of Detroit as their parents and older folks. These same millennial attorneys proudly boast that they received their undergrad degrees from Michigan State or THE Ohio State University. Is the confusing names of our athletic teams causing this problem?

Can't say I know why, perhaps someone else on here does. I think one factor might be there used to be a separate Detroit College of Law (that merged with MSU and moved to E Lansing years ago). I assume that in the 90s when both schools were operating in Detroit, referring to one as Mercy made things easier.

Also, keep in mind the law school is different than main campus in that a majority of students are from out of state and have little to no knowledge of school history and the U of D days.

I'm personally not against Detroit or Mercy. I'm just embarrassed by the leadership's inability to rebrand effectively.

"Anything that can be done in college basketball can be done from right here.” - Coach Davis

Tacitus651 wrote:Can't say I know why, perhaps someone else on here does. I think one factor might be there used to be a separate Detroit College of Law (that merged with MSU and moved to E Lansing years ago). I assume that in the 90s when both schools were operating in Detroit, referring to one as Mercy made things easier.

Also, keep in mind the law school is different than main campus in that a majority of students are from out of state and have little to no knowledge of school history and the U of D days.

I'm personally not against Detroit or Mercy. I'm just embarrassed by the leadership's inability to rebrand effectively.

Ok, that makes some sense, my little sister is a 2016 UDM law grad, and she refers to the law school as UofD. I'm going to have this discussion with her soon.

Tacitus651 wrote:Can't say I know why, perhaps someone else on here does. I think one factor might be there used to be a separate Detroit College of Law (that merged with MSU and moved to E Lansing years ago). I assume that in the 90s when both schools were operating in Detroit, referring to one as Mercy made things easier.

Also, keep in mind the law school is different than main campus in that a majority of students are from out of state and have little to no knowledge of school history and the U of D days.

I'm personally not against Detroit or Mercy. I'm just embarrassed by the leadership's inability to rebrand effectively.

Not sure if it is when someone graduated from Detroit Mercy Law but out of the dozen or so friends that graduated from there none refer to it as Mercy Law. They refer to it as UDM Law, UofD Law, Detroit Mercy Law but none have ever called it Mercy, all of them graduated between 2009 and 2013.